Brief, directed smartphone exercises can help quickly improve our mood. This is the latest finding from psychologists at the University of Basel and their international colleagues, reported in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Participants in the international study felt more alert, calmer and uplifted after - using five-minute video tutorials on their smartphones as a guide - they had, for example, practiced concentrating on their bodies.
The subjects could choose between various established or more modern psychotherapeutic exercise modules known as micro-interventions. Some of the participants, for example, recalled emotional experiences during the exercise, while other test subjects repeated short sentences or number sequences in a contemplative manner, or played with their facial gestures.
